What motherboard do I buy?

UKMEDIASTORE

UKMEDIASTORE

UKMEDIASTORE

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Upgrading my complete sytem to a Sandybridge Intel i5 2500k build & having a nightmare finding which motherboard would be most suitable for my needs.

My budget for mobo is upto £120

Here are some I am interested in, any advice would be very helpful:D

MSI P67A-53 B3
Like the specs of this board but it has been out of stock for over 1 week now, would that be because it's such a good popular board or

Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
Like the specs of this board & like the idea of SSD ISR Cache, if at a later date I decided to go to a SSD Boot/os & 2 HDD in raid, would I have to remove the SSD ISR Cache drive?:confused:

I mainly use my pc for the odd bit of video converting, internet/e-mail/on-line flash games & would like to start playing some recent pc games.
 
They're both very good boards.

The only downside of the GD53 that I can think of is it doesn't have the functionalities of the Z68 boards.

The Gigabyte is mATX sized and to do this they had to skimp on the number of USB connections (only 6 in total), and there is no PCI slot, so if you have a lot of USB peripherals you may have to get a USB controller PCIe card. It also doesn't have the UEFI BIOS interface.
 
Would I be able to use my external powered USB hub in 1 of them USB connections to extend it- I currently use it for switching various gadgets when needed - camera/iphone ect or can I only use six usb items before needing the USB controller PCIe card.

I checked out both bios types via youtube & think they are both great, as I have only ever used the old plain 1's manually setting mem timings ect either would be better imo.
 
Had a think about what would be the best motherboard for me,

Would increasing my budget be a better choice? or would the SSD ISR Cache feature on the Gigabyte motherboard offer better overall performance? or should I forget the SSD ISR Cache feature on the Gigabyte motherboard and add the small SSD (required for that) budget to my original budget of £120 and buy a better quality motherboard? or am I just wasting extra £££'s doing this?

These are all the motherboards I am interested in, just need to trim them down to just the 1 to buy:-)

MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £109.98
Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £114.98
Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £128.98
Gigabyte P67A-UD3P-B3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £129.98
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** with FREE Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler £139.99.
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
Asus P67 Sabertooth Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £149.98
 
I went for a gigabyte z68 ud4. It was mainly based on that I want to still be able to use my pci sound card. With my GTX 480 fitted with a thermalright shaman though. (amazing gpu cooler) also I wanted the better power system of the ud4
 
Jfan said:
I went for a gigabyte z68 ud4. It was mainly based on that I want to still be able to use my pci sound card. With my GTX 480 fitted with a thermalright shaman though. (amazing gpu cooler) also I wanted the better power system of the ud4
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Thanks for your comments, I think £169.99 is to expensive imo
 
UKMEDIASTORE said:
Motherboard decided now.

Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98.

Just seen Stulid's thread, no competition imo after reading/seeing that.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18281874

Thanks again
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Good Choice from what I hear about that Board!

Slightly off topic, but you said you wanted to play some recent games in your OP, I think that your current GFX card might hold you back somewhat, depending at what detail you want from your games and the res you play at. just my 2 cents worth!;)
 
teejay73 said:
Good Choice from what I hear about that Board!

Slightly off topic, but you said you wanted to play some recent games in your OP, I think that your current GFX card might hold you back somewhat, depending at what detail you want from your games and the res you play at. just my 2 cents worth!;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comment, it's always worth 2 cents just in case it's been overlooked.

I have decided to go for this
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** [11162-15-20G] £99.98

Cracking price/performance deal me thinks

Going to add a spec me to general hardware now as just got paid:D
 
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